A tuxedoed auctioneer will drop his gavel around 7 p.m. in Saratoga Springs, kicking off two days of selling some very expensive race horses.

The auctions are an important gauge of the health of horse racing, which is big business in Saratoga County and the icon of its vibrant tourism brand. Racing generates an estimated $200 million economic impact in the county, home to 55 horse farms and Saratoga Race Course, considered the oldest active sports venue in America.

The Saratoga auctions, held across the street from the track, are known for attracting wealth from around the world and celebrities who come as much for the party scene as the sales themselves (more on that in a bit). And hey, it’s free to get in, a great chance to get a whiff of how the 1 percent lives.

Here are four things to watch for:

Winners

This is certainly what buyers hope they’re getting, since the average horse will cost in the neighborhood of $300,000 (and the bidding on some will escalate beyond $1 million).

But buyers don’t know for sure: Not one horse to be sold at the Aug. 5-6 auctions has ever run a race.

It’ll come down to a horse’s family tree, X-rays, physicals such as stride and size of hind legs, and an attempt to detect the intangible competitive fire all great athletes possess.

The odds tend to be better than you might guess. From 2007-09, according to industry stats, almost 60 percent of the horses sold at Saratoga went on to win at least one race. Of that group, two in three won multiple races.

Cross Traffic, which won the big race last weekend at Saratoga Race Course, was sold at this auction. He has half-siblings for sale on Aug. 6.

From 2009 through 2011, he dominated the Saratoga sales, averaging $8.5 million each year. In 2009 alone, he bought seven of the nine most expensive horses.

Last year, he wasn’t quite as free with his money. He bought $3.3 million of horses, and left after the first night of the sales (flying home on his private Boeing jumbo-jet).

Whatever he does this year, he’ll move the needle.

New money

This is the fervent hope of the Fasig-Tipton auction house, and the leaders of thoroughbred racing as well.

After all, owners are the ones giving business to horse breeders (including the roughly 55 horse farms in Saratoga County alone). And owners are the ones with the product to fill the starting gates at race tracks like Saratoga Race Course, site of what is the largest sports event in the 11-county Capital Region.

Anecdotally, those in the industry say more money is flowing into racing, but it’s slow. But with the S&P and Dow Jones Industrial Average at all-time highs, more new faces may be moving in.

“More people are willing to give you significant amounts of money, say, $500,000 or more, to tap into the (horse) market,” says Boyd Browning Jr., president and CEO of the auction house.

Atmosphere

The allure of the Saratoga auctions is not merely the top-shelf racing prospects, but the top-shelf liquor and the sense you’re at a high-end cocktail party that happens to be located amid some very well-tended-to barns.

Saratoga is a boutique auction, with just 150 horses up for sale. That is 20 percent less than a year ago, and a mere fraction of the several thousand horses sold at some popular sales in Kentucky, the storied U.S. headquarters of the sport.

"You get a lot of people who won't come to the other sales, just because they want to be in Saratoga," says Duncan Taylor, whose Taylor Made Sales Agency is located in Kentucky. "There are definitely people who only buy there."